TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) — Federal budget cuts are expected to force the shutdown of control towers at two small Arkansas airports, though at least one of the airports is working to keep its tower open.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday released a list of towers to close that includes ones in Texarkana and Fayetteville. The airports themselves will remain open.

In all, the FAA says 149 towers run under contract for the agency will close beginning early next month under automatic spending cuts.

Texarkana Regional Airport Director Stephen Luebbert said tower operation is an essential part of running a safe airport. He said the airport will find a way to continue to provide that service, perhaps by pooling with other airports that are losing their contract towers.

“Airports and the FAA have been close-knit on improving safety religiously year after year after year, and then to pull one of the key components out of that configuration — the control towers — it just boggles our mind,” Luebbert said.

He said the funding cuts affect not only the airports but the pilots.

“They depend on charts and flight plans and documents and software that have one set of procedures for a towered airport and frequencies, and then you’ve suddenly flipped that overnight to another set of procedures without any kind of a phase-in,” Luebbert said. “You’re going to have a lot of people on the wrong frequencies and when they’re on the wrong frequencies, they run into things.”

Funding could be restored down the road, he said, but for now they’re looking into ways to keep their tower open.

“If the FAA isn’t going to do it, we will,” he said. “You don’t ever want to be part of an NTSB investigation.”